Sin's Story
by writewithurheart
Summary: After months of avoiding it, Sin finally visits Sara's grave to say goodbye and she runs into someone she didn't expect to see.


"Hey. I know I haven't been by in a while. I...I just...I couldn't. I mean, Roy told me a while ago...what had happened, you know? And I just...I didn't believe it. I kept thinking you'd come back to me. I'd turn a corner one night and you'd be there, my big sister in black leather kicking ass and taking names. I never thought you could be _gone_ gone. I guess I was wrong."

The small girl dressed in black pulls her leather jacket tighter around her as she kneels before the carved headstone with an old date of death. Three months. She's known for three months, but being here, standing over her only family's dead body makes it real in stunning clarity.

"Why did you have to leave me too?!" The tears start now, seeping out against her own will. Three months she's held them back. They're finally too much to contain. She hasn't cried this much since her dad died. Everyone leaves her eventually.

They always go away and then never come back. They leave her alone in a world that doesn't care.

"Excuse me? What are you doing here?"

Sin whips around at the studiously polite voice, eyes landing on the tall brunette impeccably dressed to the nines even as she stands in the middle of the grass in her high heels. She recognizes her from the couple times she saw Sara talking to her at the bar: Laurel Lance. Sin's never spoken to her, but she's heard stories, and not just from Roy with his gossip from the Arrow's team. All she really knows for sure is that Sara loved her, even if she seems stuck up and pompous right now in her pressed suit. But she's also heard rumors she's been training with Ted Grant.

"Sorry. I was just talking to...an old friend. I'll...go now..." Sin stuffs her hands in the pockets of her worn weather jacket, offering a small smile in the lawyer's direction.

"Wait!"

Sin turns back slowly, only a couple yards away. Laurel sighs.

"How did you know my sister?" Laurel's brown eyes bore into hers, as if the answer is written clearly on her face.

"She...uh...she used to look out for me." Sin offers a half-hearted smile that doesn't quite reach her still-teary eyes.

Laurel opens her mouth and nods absently, clearly not sure what to do with the new information. "Oh."

Awkwardly, Sin nods and turns to walk away again, eyes focused on the ground. Laurel might be Sara's sister, but she's a complete stranger to Sin. From what she's gathered, Laurel can be a bit stuck up, the opposite of laid-back Sara.

"Hey. Hey!" A hand wraps around her upper arm and she reacts, flipping Laurel over her shoulder in a fluid motion. She winces along with Laurel as she processes what happened. Laurel's clean suit can no longer be called impeccable thanks to the mud left over from the last few days of rain.

"I just wanted to ask you how you met her. She hasn't been back for very long and we thought she was dead, so when did you meet?" Laurel slowly pulls herself back to her feet, somehow managing to look put together despite the spreading mud stains marring her outfit.

Sin shrugs. "It was about four years ago. She found me at one of my foster homes. I...I didn't know who she was. She just helped me fend off a couple of bullies. Then she would just keep checking in on me."

"Sounds like Sara."

Sin nods, not sure what to do now. "Anyway, I've got some stuff to do..."

"What's your name?" Laurel asks, arm extended as if she was about to grab Sin and then thought twice about it.

Sin pauses, assessing Laurel. Her eyes lock onto a figure all in black behind Laurel, an assassin dressed in black with a bow slung over her shoulder. Nyssa nods slowly before turning into shadow.

In Arabic, Sin whispers, "_Goodbye, Mother._"

"What was that?" Laurel asks, frowning.

Sin shakes her head. "Nothing. Um...they call me Sin."

"Sort for Cindy?" Laurel asks expectantly, a pleasant smile gracing her face even if it is a little forced around the edges.

"Sure," Sin shrugs. That's as good an explanation as any.

"So, Sin, where are you staying?"

"You mean, since the clocktower got blown up?" Sin laughs so she doesn't cry. That was the first place she really called home in a long, long time.

"Clocktower? You were staying in a clocktower? But where are you staying now?"

"Here and there. I know how to take care of myself." She makes to saunter away again.

"Do you...do you want a place to stay? I...I've got a really comfortable couch. And a pile of comfortable pillows and way more blankets than I know what to do with."

"Sorry, DA, I'm not a comfy couch and blankets kind of girl." Sin turns away. She hasn't been that girl for a long time. After her father died, she went into the system and actually ended up with a decent family. They were rich, like Queens-of-Starling-City rich. She was their first foster child. They hadn't wanted a baby, and it seemed to be a match made in heaven. She had everything she could ever want...for a while.

"_Please_. I owe it to Sara."

"No dice, sister."

"Just one night. _Please._"

Sin takes another step, not inclined to give to the lawyer's demands. Everyone leaves her eventually.

"I need to talk to someone about her. _Please_."

That stops her. Laurel's voice softens.

"Just one night."

Sin turns back, staring into her soulful eyes. Sara had mentioned that once, that she had a beautiful sister everyone adored and looked up to. But she could also see parts of Sara in her. With Sara, Sin had felt safe, felt loved for the first time in years. She had been living on the streets when she was found by Sara. Her foster parents got pregnant and didn't trust her with the baby, so she left. She knew when she wasn't wanted.

Wet and shivering, covered in filth, Sara had dragged from that life and taken her to the secret city in the mountains. She taught her how to fight, how to find her inner strength. With Sara and Nyssa, Sin had found home again. She found peace.

Then she faced her first test: the Assassin's first kill. She froze, immobile at the prospect of taking another life. Sara saved her life again, finishing the job. That same night, Sara and Sin left Nanda Parbat. In the shroud of darkness, they escaped, leaving the city they had come to call home.

She can see the possibility of home again now, looking into Laurel's eyes. She can see the same hopeful plea she found in Sara's eyes whenever she had to relocate them so the League couldn't track them. She doesn't want to give in to the grief in her soul, but tonight seems to be her night of concessions. Slowly, she turns back to Laurel and nods.

"One night."


End file.
